A nine-month European Union investigation into the 2008 war in the Caucasus has concluded that Georgia triggered the conflict, but that Russia prepared the ground for war to break out and broke international law by invading Georgia as a whole.

Conclusions to the roughly 1,000 page report, released on Wednesday by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, also found that Russia-backed South Ossetian militias committed atrocities and “ethnic cleansing” of Georgian villages during and since the war. It faulted Russian forces in control of the territory that either “would not or could not” control the South Ossetians.

Was the McCain/Palin campaign right about anything? It is probably worth remembering that Randy Scheunemann, a long time lobbyist for Georgia and agitator against Russia, was whispering in McCain’s ear during the crisis as one of his key advisors, and he has now moved on to position himself as the next Turdblossom in a future Palin administration. Remember, being wrong about everything is a key qualification for promotion in the current Republican party.

You mean the Palin mastery of Russian politics she gained by staring out over the horizon didn’t give them some sort of edge in punditing the conflict?

George Bush stared into Putin’s soul and found it pure. John McCain stomped his foot and demanded we blow up South Ossetia in the name of FREEDOM! They’re all useful idiots, more interested in scoring political points today than in the long term consequences of their actions.

Do not underestimate Vladmir Putin. This is not about some land in the Caucuses, or about a few rockets. The President of Georgia is an idiot , largely due to his Ivy League education. Saakashvili went to Columbia University. This is why he fell into Putin’s trap. One of Glenn Beck’s errors is being a Saakashvilli fan. Obama went to Columbia University too.

This is all about oil, and removing NATO from between the Russian forces and the Middle East. Without NATO being in the way, Russia has a straight shot south without organized resistance.

There are three pipelines, and one 22-mile wide waterway, that connect the Middle Eastern energy supplies to Europe. Europe has already depleted its fossil fuels due to the creativity of the population.

After Israel nukes Iran, Russia will move in as ‘peacekeepers’. Then they will strangle their old rivals. Russia will own Europe. It will once again be the Russians against the US, but the US will prevail as we have 400 years of domestic oil shale, and a history of individual initiative.

The President of Georgia is an idiot , largely due to his Ivy League education. Saakashvili went to Columbia University. This is why he fell into Putin’s trap. One of Glenn Beck’s errors is being a Saakashvilli fan. Obama went to Columbia University too.

If he had only gone to the Limbaugh School of Political Science and Television Repair, none of this would have ever happened.

This is all about oil, and removing NATO from between the Russian forces and the Middle East. Without NATO being in the way, Russia has a straight shot south without organized resistance.

Yeah, because colonialism worked so well for the Europeans in Mesopotamia.

Oh, and other people holding Ivy League degrees: George W Bush (Yale and Harvard), Mitt Romney (Harvard JD/MBA), Don Rumsfeld (Princeton), Dick Cheney flunked out of Yale, Sandy Berger (Cornell and Harvard), Paul Wolfowitz went to Cornell, Alberto Gonzales (Harvard JD). So yeah, I could see how one would think that having a degree from an Ivy League school would make you an idiot.

Do not underestimate Vladmir Putin. This is not about some land in the Caucuses, or about a few rockets. The President of Georgia is an idiot , largely due to his Ivy League education. Saakashvili went to Columbia University. This is why he fell into Putin’s trap. One of Glenn Beck’s errors is being a Saakashvilli fan. Obama went to Columbia University too.

This paragraph is brilliantly nonsensical. The whole post is great, but this paragraph is the best.

Really, you should submit that to Kaplan. You might land a job out of it.

OK, I have to give them this: the moment when the frizzy haired old lady at one of McCain’s late season campaign rallies stammered at McCain that she couldn’t trust Obama because “he’s, he’s, he’s not… he’s an ARAB”, and McCain took the microphone away from her and shook his head sadly and muttered “No, no”.

He was right about that.

I’d love to know what was going through Walnuts’ mind at that exact moment. It had to be some mix of “these people are nucking futs“, and “Oh shite, I am so screwed“. I like to think that was the exact moment when he first knew for dead certain that he was going to lose the election.

OK, I have to give them this: the moment when the frizzy haired old lady at one of McCain’s late season campaign rallies stammered at McCain that she couldn’t trust Obama because “he’s, he’s, he’s not… he’s an ARAB”, and McCain took the microphone away from her and shook his head sadly and muttered “No, no”.

Actually, that only counts as a half point for the campaign, because while Johnny Mac cleared the bar, Starbursts Barbie failed, spectacularly.

No. And it should be repeated a lot and loudly that McCain and several prominent Republicans were willing to go to war with Russia to defend that autocrat and his stupid aggression.

It should be brought up whenever someone (from either party) floats the brilliant idea of expanding NATO to Ukraine or Georgia which would drag us (by treaty) into their conflict with nuclear power Russia the next time they get into a pissing match with Moscow.

It should prompt a sober reanalysis of just what purpose maintaining NATO does now and why the interests of Americans are linked to defending Poland from a Russian threat that does not exist, and whether or not we would appreciate a similarly themed defensive alliance led by Russia being offered to Mexico.

But that won’t happen, because sober analysis is forbidden when it comes to foreign policy, because if we don’t have some external threat (even a non-existent one), then we can’t justify spending hundreds of billions of dollars on maintaining a global military presence and hundreds of thousands of folks in the defense contractor industry might need to find private sector jobs.